Hidden Behind the Caged Bars
by Spiritedawayinamovingcastle
Summary: He said he would protect her, but what happens when "protection" loses its meaning?
1. Prologue

"_I'll definitely protect you_"

She grimly remembered the words Toma had said to her. It had only been a few minutes after Ikki's fangirls had attacked her with a pair of scissors, cutting approximately an inch of her hair off. Toma's golden eyes were still vigilantly darting from side to side, scanning the area. In one swift movement he had moved in closer to her, much more close than a friend would have. The wind carried the scent of his cologne and intertwined it between its airy tendrils, shrouding notes of cedar and leather around her.

She ran her delicate fingernails through her hair, pausing when she felt the sharp indent the scissors had made.

"Is it…noticeable?" She had asked him, her pale cheeks turning a light shade of pink.

He made her turn around so that her back was facing him. He examined her fully, and she felt the heat rush to her face as he wound his slender fingers slowly through her auburn-pink hair. She felt his intense gaze- his heightened senses, and wondered if he was getting nervous touching her like this. This thought made her flush an even redder shade, but she let it dwell in her mind for just a few more moments before letting it go. After all, it wasn't like she had any other memories to keep her company.

This made her think of Orion, and a small wave of annoyance pulsed through her body, but she chose not to let it show. He had hastily gone off to the heroine's house to check for any angry fangirl messages that might have popped up, saying that she and Toma could use some private time. When she had protested, he had simply brushed her words aside with a cheeky wink and bolted off with a speed that could only be explained by his supernatural form.

Meanwhile, she heard Toma exhale slowly, and this snapped her out of her daze. His hot breath tickled her ear, providing a contrast to the cold evening breeze that encased them. There was an awkward pause.

Then suddenly, he laughed.

Flustered, the heroine whirled around to hear him say,"It's not _that _bad." He had an annoyingly goofy smile spread across his face, much like a cartoon character.

"LIAR!" She was now frantically searching for something reflective nearby the street corner to see the damage for herself. Her sudden reaction only made him double over with a second dose of laughter. She put on the angriest pout that was physically possible, and he looked up at her, his wide eyes shiny with amusement.

Upon seeing her vulnerable expression, his face softened considerably. He reached out one of his hands and caught her by the arm as she was rushing towards a store window. She let out a small gasp as he pulled her in the opposite direction. Stumbling, she felt the all too familiar sensation of falling, but it was cut short when Toma's other arm pulled her into his tight embrace from behind.

"I'm sorry this had to happen," He lightly rested his head on her shoulder. "I should've protected you, and I failed at even that."

An unidentifiable tone had worked its way into his voice, and his voice had quivered ever so slightly towards the end. She didn't know if he was upset, or angry. Either or, she had a heart-wrenching desire to tell him that it was okay, that he wasn't at fault, that he could not control what had happened. But of course, she kept silent. She always had.

Toma's grip on her tightened, his hands curling up into fists. The heroine let out a small squeal of shock. Toma's voice was dark, and filled with raw emotion.

"**No matter what, from now on I will always protect you. I will never let anything bad happen to you. I will be the person who you will want to be with**."

The heroine smiled politely, and gave Toma a soft kiss. She looked into Toma's eyes, and saw no longer the warm, amber eyes of her childhood friend, but the hard, metallic stare of a stranger. Something had changed.


	2. A Safe Place

Chapter 2:

The sun was visibly setting now, drowning the sky in a marvelous explosion of pink and orange hues. The Heroine had one hand loosely woven with Toma's, and the other wavering warily close to the bottom hem of her dress. She walked with short, fast steps.

About two blocks back, a forceful gust of wind had almost completely flipped her dress inside out. The heroine, completely caught by surprise, had found herself staring at the sheet of blue fabric that was the bottom half. Luckily in her panic she had quickly yanked her skirt back down to a suitable height before anyone else on the street could notice.

That is, except for Toma.

His eyes had immediately flitted downward, widened immensely, and flicked back up again. He had put his hand over his mouth, and turned his head to look straight forward, a red flush forming over his cheeks and nose. His eyes were still as big as dinner plates, and his whole body had gone stiff. The Heroine swore she heard him make something between a moan and a whimper.

"Don't make that sound!" Orion had yelled at him, sounding just as flustered as the Heroine felt. "Are you turned on by this or something?!"

But of course his cries went unnoticed by the poor soul who was now flushing a deep scarlet from head to toe.

"Ahhhh, gomenasai ," Toma replied hesitantly. "It's not really like I can help you in this situation without looking suspicious, if you know what I mean". He raised an arm above his head and chuckled awkwardly. Orion rolled his eyes and shook his head in disapproval.

"It's fine… I agree." She had said with a petite smile, covering up her dismay. With a groan she wondered if the universe was turning against her today.

Now they walked to Toma's house, which was about a twenty minute walk away. He had suggested that she stay over that night after all that she'd been through that day. The Heroine felt exhausted just thinking about the hateful messages she might find in her email and mailbox from Ikki's fangirls if she walked home, so she agreed.

"He better not do anything bad to you at his house, or else I'll kick him to another dimension…" Orion murmured while casting a threatening glance to Toma. The Heroine let out a sigh of exasperation, but her eyes were smiling.

* * *

Upon arriving at the apartment, the heroine felt a small twinge of nervousness, realizing that she'd actually never been to Toma's before, much less slept over before.

"It's on the second floor," Toma explained. "I'm staying here until my studies at university are finished, or at least until I can afford a bigger place." He winked at her, and she flushed her usual shade of light pink accordingly.

"WOOOW! Toma has some major house decorating skills!" Orion beamed, exploring the apartment.

The place actually wasn't too bad, the heroine found herself thinking. Toma had gone for a contemporary style, with white, sharp-edged furniture and abstract paintings adorning several walls.

He gave her a tour of the apartment, and it was surprisingly well organized for a male university student. She smiled. She had always thought of Toma as a wild, messy sort of person, the type that would often go to lots of parties. The living room consisted of a spacious white couch facing a wide screen TV, and connected up with the kitchen. His bedroom was cozy, with a low-lying king sized bed.

"I have some T-shirts that you could change into, or would you want to stay in your dress? Oh, and you should also sleep in the bed…" Toma saw the Heroine's shocked expression and added with a chuckle, "not with me of course!"

"Thanks." The Heroine sheepishly accepted both his offers.

After a minute, Toma came back with an oversized T-shirt that looked big enough to reach her knees. "Do you mind if I change in the bathroom?" She inquired.

"Ahhh..! S- Sure!" Toma replied, with a cute stutter. "I'll go prepare you some lemon tea. You look like you need it." The grin he gave her made electricity flow through her veins.

She was about to start changing in the bathroom when she saw Orion by the door.

"Don't lookyou baka! I've already had enough attention directed at me in the wrong way today!"

"Ok, ok!" Orion raised his hands up. "I'm a spirit thousands of years old, don't you think I've seen enough of that stuff already?! And I was about to turn around anyway…"

"You've got quite a bit of sass for a thousand year old spirit."

"You know it." Orion gave her a smirk. The Heroine responded with a puff of annoyance.

"Did anything happen back there on the street with Toma?" Orion asked after a slight pause. He liked to get straight to the point, the heroine noticed. "I sensed that the aura in the area was quite weird when I got back. Like when you're walking on a sunny day and then a cloud covers the sun and you get really cold all of a sudden. That's what it felt like."

Orion's analysis was strikingly similar to the indecipherable expression Toma had put on earlier that day while promising to protect her. His eyes had clouded over, and the light in them had gone out. Even when she had kissed him, his lips were cold and unwelcoming.

"I got a haircut, and not in the way I wanted. Ikki's insane cult of fangirls gave the back of my head a brief trimming. Toma couldn't stop them, and he got pretty upset about it." The heroine explained while slipping her petite figure into Toma's exponentially larger T-shirt.

"Yea, I noticed that your hair was a little shorter in the back than usual."

"Gee, thanks."

"And yea, even if he got really wound up I'm pretty sure it was just because you, someone who he really cared about, were in danger." Orion replied, shrugging. "He's ok now, right? And more importantly, are _you_ ok?"

"Yea, but it would probably be best not to let him dwell on it." She wasn't going to spoil the evening by bringing up unnecessary topics. "And yea, I'm ok." The heroine turned to smile at Orion, hoping to prove it.

"Okay…" Orion said, his tone reflecting what suspicion he still had left. The heroine was already halfway out the bathroom door.

Upon entering the bedroom again, she found Toma sitting on the edge of the checkered bed sheet, his head resting on his hands. A small bedside lamp illuminated the room, casting a warm glow in contrast to the silver moonlight. Beside him was a tray with two mugs, a lone lemon slice garnishing the rim of one of them. She planted herself beside him, the bed creaking despite what little weight she added.

He cocked his head slightly to the right to look at her and gave her a slight smile.

"Hey." His eyes looked so tired. The heroine felt a deep urge to pull him into her arms.

"Hi, sorry I took so long."

"No problem, the tea's still hot, so it's okay." He handed the solitary garnished glass to her. The heroine put the glass to her lips and sipped. He had remembered that she took sugar, probably since she had taken to making herself tea during her lunch breaks at Meido no Hitsuji. She silently thanked him for remembering these kinds of small things as she savoured the subtle sweetness of the sugar coupled with the underlying flavours of lemon and black tea.

* * *

It was late at night, and the Heroine lay curled up in a fortress of bed sheets that Toma had made for her. He had tucked her into bed like a child much to her objection (Orion was laughing silently in the background) and provided her with extra blankets because he "didn't want her to be cold during the night." She looked to her right. Ironically, Toma laid in a miserable lump on a futon with a paper-thin bed sheet covering him.

"Toma?"

"Yea?"

"Get in the bed."

"….WHAT?" The curled figure stiffened considerably under the sheet.

"I said get in! You look so miserable! …And also quite lonely if I do say so myself." she coaxed, the corners of her mouth turning up into a slight grin.

With a sigh Toma slowly got up from the futon and climbed into the bed alongside her, undoing the cocoon of blankets he had previously wrapped her with. His cologne had still not worn off, filling the air with the scent of cedar.

She gave him a quick kiss and ran her hand along the outline of his jaw, lingering slightly before moving it down his neck. Even though it was dark she could still see a small fire ablaze in his eyes as he looked at her. It set a small flame ablaze inside her too.

He pressed his forehead gently against hers and whispered "I'm so glad that I have you." He was blushing, and she could feel the heat emanating from his face. "Don't be scared, I won't do anything."

"I know. I trust you." Wow. The bed was getting warm.

"Do you?" Warmer.

"You know I do." Hot.

"Would you trust me if I said I was lying before?" Scorching.

"Maybe." Unbearable.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ahhhh finally!~ I've missed writing! Thanks to all you guys who've followed and favourited the story! *hugs you all* Hopefully I can get more chapters uploaded quicker in the next few months. You guys have no idea what I have in store... ;)

-Melody


	3. A Little Taste of Danger

"Welcome home, Master!"

The Heroine, dressed in Meido no Hitsuji's signature frilly red apron, greeted the lone customer with a deep bow.

"Ahaha, what a cute café, and such a very charming young lady to go along with it!" The customer's voice was soft and flowed nicely, like velvet. It was a voice that could talk all day and wouldn't seem the least bit annoying.

The Heroine flushed shade of subtle pink at his remark, rising to a standing position. A strand of pink-tipped hair fell out of place, and she slowly tucked it behind her ear.

"Arigato, mister! Please, I'll lead you to your seat." She walked along the polished wooden floor of the café to a table by the window. The corner seat was the best in the café, far enough from the bustling kitchen to avoid the noise, but close enough to be able to smell all of the delicacies. Today Waka had placed a colourful assortment of tulips in various hues by the embossed windows, and she hoped that he would enjoy the scenery.

"Ahhh, it feels like I've been here a million times, and yet, I haven't been here once." The stranger unbuttoned his deep violet trenchcoat and draped it over the back of the burgundy-striped chair. He then lifted what looked to be a moderately sized satchel over his shoulder and set in gently down on the floor before taking a seat. "Weird, isn't it? Like déjà vu." He draped one of his legs lazily over the other, and stared up at her intently.

The Heroine smiled back at him, meeting his captivating stare. "The café has that effect on some people. We try and make it as comfortable as possible for all of our customers, including yourself."

The man chuckled. It reminded the heroine of the sound that water droplets made, gentle and soft. "Well, thank you for that. I appreciate it very much. Do you mind if I take some photos of the tulips?" He ran his hand over his worn out leather camera case, long fingers tracing along the aged grooves.

He must be a professional photographer, the Heroine thought as she stared at him. Why else would he have wanted to take photos? She usually didn't get customers like this; mostly Ikki's fangirls and lovestruck couples came to the petite cake shop.

"They're just so interesting…they truly capture the marvelous beauty this world has to offer." With this the customer looked up to meet her eyes, his own illuminated a marvelous plethora of red and green hues by the dim lighting of the café. "So, the answer is…?"

"Oh…! Yes… sure!" The Heroine , momentarily distracted by his intense gaze, responded. "And I'll get Ikki, he'll be your waiter today." With a quick spin on the heel of her white boot, she left the table.

As she strode towards Meido no Hitsuji's quaint little kitchen, the Heroine caught sight of Ikki. As usual, he had two fangirls by his side, one which was checking herself out in a petite rhinestone-embellished compact mirror. The other was just staring dumbfounded at his face, as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world. When Waka wasn't around to force them away, they would usually follow Ikki around like this, and he would have to apologize to all the customers that he served. Some were so attached that regular customers started to think that they were paid actors as part of the café's theme.

"Look at them… I mean, don't they have something better to do in their spare time? It's almost like someone's cast a spell on them!" The Heroine jumped at Orion's sudden materialization. No matter how many times he did that, she never could get used to it.

"Yea, I guess. " The Heroine wandered what they did in their spare time. Was it even possible for someone to take up another person's entire life? Ikki turned to look at her and met her eyes. Without a thought, she put four fingers up, the usual staff code for a new customer. Then she held up both her index fingers to signify table 11, where the man was seated. The girl with the compact mirror stopped applying her neon bubblegum lipstick and gave her a once over, obviously trying to determine if she was flirting or not with Ikki. The heroine just smiled and waved back to her in response. Ikki nodded and then politely excused himself from the two reluctant fangirls, whose names were apparently "Min" and "Liz".

Instead of going straight to the customer, Ikki stopped by to talk to the Heroine first.

"Listen, I just heard what they did to you yesterday. I'm _so _sorry! I've talked to them and made sure they won't do anything remotely like that again." Ikki's words came out genuine, but he looked stressed, as if he were a parent apologizing for his kid's irrational behavior.

"It's fine, it really wasn't your fault."The Heroine jokingly brushed the matter aside. If she held a grudge, matters were only going to get worse between her and the fangirls. Furthermore, if she had deliberately done something against them, they might have cut more than just an inch off.

"Thanks," Ikki looked incredibly relieved, and his posture relaxed. "Again, gomenasai! I better get going and take his order." He gestured in the direction of the photographer, who had now taken to photographing the blossoming tulips from various angles. The faint clicking of his camera could be heard from their position.

"You know, it's not good to flirt with customers when you've got a boyfriend." Ikki's tone had changed to one of annoying prodding, his voice assimilating into the general chatter of the café as he started to walk away.

"HEY… you were watching? Moreover, it wasn't flirti-" The Heroine wanted to defend herself, but Ikki was too far and the photographer had turned to face in their direction, the gleaming lens of the camera staring at her expectantly.

* * *

Mid afternoon light shone through the translucent café windows, casting a pale golden light on the hardwood. Waka had entrusted the duty of closing up the restaurant to the staff working that day, which was composed of Shin, Kent, Ikki, Mine, and the Heroine. Business was slow, and what appeared to be the last customer of the day had just left, eager to enjoy the rest of the cool fall evening. The Heroine wiped down the long cherry wood tables, enjoying the comfortable atmosphere.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" A shrill scream rang out throughout the café, snapping the Heroine out of her pleasant state of mind. She looked around the cafe in confusion, searching for any other customers that may have gone unnoticed by her. After concluding that there were indeed no customers left the Heroine promptly moved to the Meido no Hitsuji storeroom , where she was met with a disastrous situation.

"Oh man." Orion piped, his voice distant in the back of her mind.

"Oh man" was the exact way to describe it. Mine was running around the kitchen with an ice cream scooper in one hand and a five litre bucket of pistachio gelato in the other. Shin and Ikki were huddled by the sink, each holding a cake, which the Heroine recognized as ones she had decorated earlier that day. They were each hurling the edible contents they were carrying at each other's faces, with Mine occasionally letting out a small shriek in her nasally voice. Sawa stood nearby, recording the entire façade on her flip phone, doubled over in laughter.

"They've been at this for five minutes already." The Heroine looked to her left and saw Kent, safe behind a shelf of various drink syrups. He was holding a Sudoku book in one hand, looking annoyed more than anything.

"AND YOU DIDN'T TRY TO _STOP_ THEM?" The Heroine had to raise her voice to be heard above the trio. Ikki had been hit square in the face with a loaded scoop of Mine's gelato, and Shin, who was usually serious and cynical, was laughing hysterically. Ikki was now trying to shove cake down his uniform in an act of retaliation.

"Well _excuse me_ for not wanting a face full of the special gelato of the day." Kent spat out.

"BU-"

"WATCH OUT!" Orion's voice rang throughout her head, and in a split second Kent was up on his feet and the Heroine felt a strong hand around her waist, whisking her in an unknown direction. Her vision became blurred and she heard an enormous crash behind her.

The next thing she saw was Kent's face… two inches away from hers. Realizing the situation with incredible speed, Kent let go of her almost immediately, stepping a few feet away awkwardly. The Heroine looked back and saw the shelf tipped over. One of the bottles containing fluorescent green apple flavoured syrup had broken, the contents now oozing onto the ground. Somehow the syrup had gotten onto her hand, covering it in green stickiness. Among the mixture Kent's sudoku book laid face down, pages soaked in the sugary substance.

"What a mess… Kent's not going to be too happy with that!" Orion exclaimed as he nodded towards the pitiful clump of pages. The Heroine glared at him, unable to say anything without arousing suspicion in the others.

"Are you guys insane? We could've been KILLED by that!" Kent's voice rang out harshly, his words cutting the air around him.

"Oh Kento-san, come on. Can't you handle a little danger?" Ikki teased, his voice exaggerated. "Besides, you have nothing better to do _now_." Ikki smiled mischievously as Kent turned around and saw the book. His eyes widened, and he met Ikki with a glare so vicious that even Sawa and Shin looked nervous.

"You have NO IDEA how important that book was." Kent's voice trembled, and his hands shook with rage. He then started to head for the door, his pace angry and fast.

"You can't run away from this problem Kent!" Ikki called after him, his voice unfaltering. But Kent still stormed off into the kitchen, leaving a veil of silence lying over his coworkers. No one spoke for a minute.

Ikki let out a large sigh and rolled his eyes. "_Oy vey_, what a coward. Besides it was only a sudoku book. For God's sake, he could just buy another on-… eh?"

Ikki was cut off as something hit him perfectly in the back of the head with a small thud. Ikki spun around to identify the unknown object, which had since landed on the floor with a tap.

"…A cream puff?" Ikki looked puzzled, small wrinkles forming on his forehead as he raised an eyebrow.

"Yea. That's right. By the way, these were the ones **you** made, which are hard as rock. I'm surprised any of our customers could eat them without having to pay significant funds for dental care." Kent stood once more in the doorway, a bucket of assorted cream puffs in hand.

"Oh my God. Was that supposed to be an insult?" Orion's voice rang throughout the room. The Heroine stifled a chuckle. Orion was more than blessed that no one but her could hear his cheekiness.

"You didn't think I'd go down that easily did you? I've been working on my aim, so I'd suggest you better watch out. _**All of you**_." The anger radiating from Kent's presence was so prominent that one could almost see him engulfed in a seething red aura.

"Very well. We accept your challenge… _Kento-san_." Ikki's multifaceted eyes gleamed with the excitement of a child.

"HEY! Chotto matte! You can't just accept for all of us!" Orion shouted from the sidelines, aka the Heroine's mind.

But it was too late, in a split second the storeroom had become a battleground once more, with Kent and Ikki having what looked like a pro snowball fight, only with an ammunition of creampuffs and half melted ice cream.

"Come on!" Sawa tugged on the sleeve of the Heroine's kimono, motioning to a fairly large cooler with various flavours of ice cream inside. "We can hide behind this! My apron's all sticky and I don't want to get any more food on my uniform." Indeed, Sawa had already been pelted with multiple baked goods, but she had managed to avoid Mine's pistachio ice cream scoops up until this point.

As they crouched behind the cooler, Sawa took out her phone and began videotaping the fight again.

"Oh, this is good!" Her eyes were narrowed in a smug expression. The Heroine shook her head. Sawa was probably going to use this evidence in order to blackmail all of them later.

Suddenly, the loud ringing of the Meido no Hitsuji reception phone filled the room.

The food fight noises stopped at once. Peeking out from behind the cooler, the Heroine saw that everyone was looking at each other with puzzled expressions. The café was almost closed. Why would someone be calling?

"I'll get it." Shin trudged off into the kitchen, leaving a trail of melted ice cream as he went.

Ikki looked at a syrupy, cake covered Kent with a satisfied expression. "I think I won this one."

Kent puffed up his chest and pointed a long gloved finger at Ikki. "That's only because your ammo left evidence! Your head came into contact with one of these cream puff at least twenty times."

The whole scene looked like it was out of some amateur movie.

"Prove it." Ikki turned to the Heroine and Sawa. " You all saw it, right?"

"Don't ask me! I was hiding behind the cooler!" The Heroine held up her hands.

"Well," Ikki raised an eyebrow and gave the Heroine a smile. "Based off of skill, who do you think would've won?"

"Clearly you know which answer is correct?" Kent adjusted his glasses, spreading whipped cream across his face in the process.

"Ummmmm, I-" The Heroine nervously began.

"Actually none of us won." Shin was standing in the doorway, his face contorted into an expression of panic.

A look of confusion appeared on the faces of the employees.

"Waka's coming in ten minutes."

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Oh herro there! I wonder where Toma was all that time... O.O

Anyways, THANK YOU ALL for waiting so long for me to stop procrastinating and finish this chapter (especially those of you who've been waiting from the _very_ beginning) . Welcome to all you new followers too! *Hugs all of you*

I also plan to start replying to reviews from now on, so review review review! :)

Now if you'll all excuse me... *Starts writing chapter 4*

~Melody


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